India turned up the heat at the United Nations Human Rights Council on Tuesday, with its representative Kshitij Tyagi delivering a scathing reply to Pakistan. Tyagi accused Islamabad of “bombing their own people” while misusing the forum to hurl accusations against New Delhi.
Speaking during Agenda Item 4 of the UNHRC session, the 2012-batch Indian Foreign Service officer dismissed Pakistan’s interventions as “baseless and provocative statements against India.”
“A delegation that epitomises the antithesis of this approach continues to abuse this forum with baseless and provocative statements against India,” Tyagi said. “Instead of coveting our territory, they would do well to vacate the Indian territory under their illegal occupation and focus on rescuing an economy on life support, a polity muzzled by military dominance, and a human rights record stained by persecution — perhaps once they find time away from exporting terrorism, harbouring UN-proscribed terrorists, and bombing their own people.”
His sharp rebuke came just a day after reports of a Pakistani Air Force strike in Matre Dara village, Tirah Valley, in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, that left at least 30 civilians dead, including women and children. Eyewitnesses described scenes of devastation with burned vehicles, collapsed buildings, and bodies pulled from rubble.
India also reminded the Council that its mandate must remain “universal, objective, and non-selective,” cautioning against country-specific mandates that it said reinforced “perceptions of bias and selectivity.”
Meanwhile, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) expressed “shock” at the civilian casualties from the airstrike, urging accountability.
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